


A new marriage and an old one

by CatelynStark956



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:35:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25882192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatelynStark956/pseuds/CatelynStark956
Summary: Robb is getting married and Catelyn has been married for many years. This is a happy story about the Starks that takes place in a world where AGoT never happened.All chapters were originally posted on Tumblr
Relationships: Catelyn Stark/Ned Stark, Robb Stark/Margaery Tyrell
Comments: 5
Kudos: 34





	1. A bride to be

She had not seen Ned since morning the day before. He had told her that he had to work all day and didn’t want to be disturbed. Then he had not been in the Great Hall for supper and he had never came to her during the night. Even though he had promised that he would. And he had not been in the Great Hall to break his fast. She just couldn’t find him. He was not in his chambers, not in his solar, not in the godswood, not in any courtyard, not in the Great Hall, not with any of their children. She just wanted a simple good morning-kiss, but Winterfell was too big for her to search all of it, it would take her a week. She would have to go back to her duties and wait until he appeared again.

Robb was to marry in a little more than two weeks and Margaery Tyrell was to be his bride. She was a lovely girl and Catelyn had no doubts about that they could have a good marriage, even if it was arranged. But before the marriage could begin, there had to be a wedding. And a wedding required so so so much preparations. Catelyn had, along with many other things, been tasked with making a veil to match the dress Margaery was to wear and she was not quite finished yet. Catelyn didn’t understand why Sansa, who was better than her at embroidery, had not got that task placed in her lap. Not that Catelyn was bad, she was better than most, Sansa just had an incredible talent and Catelyn had so many other things to do. But Margaery had wanted her to do it and who was she to deny the bride of her son? She knew fully well about the hell with summer snows and horrible cold that Margaery was experiencing, she would do whatever she could to make her time in the North a little better. It was also and incredible honor to be chosen to make a veil for a bride, and it was rude to deny that honor.

She had almost arrived back at her own chambers when she rounded a corner and walked straight into Margaery. Since her future daughter-in-law leaned more towards the petite side, the collision almost sent the poor girl flying. What a good start.

”Oh” she gasped. ”I’m so sorry, did I hurt you?”

But Margaery only laughed. She was very pretty with her brown doe eyes, sweet features and long chestnut hair.

”No need to apologize, Lady Catelyn” she said. ”No harm was done, now was it?”

”I suppose not” Catelyn said relieved, it would not have been good if she had injured Margaery so close to the wedding.

She expected the smile on the girl’s face to falter, but she remained smiling.

”Have you finished my veil?” she asked.

Damn it, of all tasks she could have asked about, it was the veil. Catelyn had finished so much, just not the veil. She was sure of that it would be finished in time, but it still bothered her that it had taken her so long to make it.

”Uhm, no” she admitted. ”But I was just about to continue with it. And I assure you of that it’s almost done, just give me another day.”

Margaery shook her head slightly and laid a hand on Catelyn’s arm. She looked very assuring in a motherly way for being so young. She was half Catelyn’s age and still Catelyn felt like it was the other way around.

”No, no, no. I didn’t mean to stress you, take the time you need. I know how much you have to do” she said.

She had a lot to do. And still she had just spent more than an hour running around the castle in order to find her husband so that she could get a kiss. Reasonable way to spend time when you were buried in duties.

”You said you were going to work on the veil now, would you mind if I sat with you?” Margaery asked.

”It means bad luck if you if you see the veil before your wedding day” Catelyn immediately said.

That was common knowledge, the bride was not supposed to see the veil before she put it on on her wedding day. If she did see the veil, it meant an unhappy and childless marriage. Highborn girls were taught that early, surely Margaery knew about it.

”I know, but I can sit with my back to you” she insisted.

Catelyn was still unsure. She didn’t want an unsuccessful marriage for her son and his sweet bride. They were so young, they had everything in front of them. Ruining it now would be incredibly foolish.

Margaery leaned closer to her so that the people passing them wouldn’t hear what she said.

”I’m very nervous, and I have a lot of questions” she whispered.

“I’m sure your lady mother would answer your questions“ Catelyn said.

“But she hasn’t done this whole northern thing. You have. I just want to speak to someone who knows what it’s like to do all of this.”

For a second Catelyn saw herself standing there. Nervous and scared about marrying a northern man she barely knew. Walking around with the knowledge of that she would have to live in his frozen castle until the end of her days. The North was not a welcoming place, she really understood why Margaery was nervous about marrying into it all. And she would answer her every question to the best of her ability.

”Of course” Catelyn said compassionately. ”Just make sure you never turn your head.”

”Thank you so much” Margaery said and smiled again.

They walked together the last few steps to Catelyn’s chambers. Catelyn called for a servant to get a fire burning in the hearth, it was so ungodly cold in the castle and she didn’t want to sit with her cloak on. Then she placed Margaery in a chair with her back towards her and took the veil out from the drawer in her desk where she kept it when she was not working on it. It was definitely one of her finer works. Fine white transparent fabric, and she was working on embroidering a golden rose with grey wolves circling around it. It looked quite good, she hoped that Margaery would like it.

”Ask whatever you want, I will answer your every question” she said as she started with her needlework.

She had to distance herself from the fact that it was her son that would be Margaery’s husband and just think of it as if she was to marry a person Catelyn did not know.

”How long have you been married to your lord?” Margaery asked.

Catelyn had to think a bit to answer that question. She had been married for a long time, and it didn’t immediately come to her exactly how long it had been since her wedding. But she managed to remember.

”I think it should be about twenty years now” she finally said. ”And I have been up here for almost nineteen.”

She had spent a year away from her husband just after they married and remained down in the south while he was off at war. She had birthed twins that year. Robb had came first, and Jon second. They were the same age, but Robb had been first and would therefore inherit Ned’s titles as Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North. At times she felt bad for Jon, he had been so close but still he wouldn’t get more than Hoster, who was her last born son.

”Then I know I can survive at least nineteen to twenty years” Margaery joked.

Catelyn chuckled and could imagine that Margaery smiled even though she couldn’t see her face. She was confident in that both of them would survive a good bunch of more years, even though she at times believed that the cold would be the end of her.

”With a bit of luck it will be even more” she said. “Though it will sometimes feel impossible.”

Margaery was quiet for a while. Catelyn guessed that she was thinking of her next question and waited. She focused on her embroidery, didn’t want to push Margaery.

”I have thought a lot of children” Margaery said after a while. ”I want to give my husband many little ones, is it difficult getting with child? Does the cold climate change anything?”

Personally, Catelyn didn’t have much trouble with getting pregnant. She had been with child pretty regularly since she married. In twenty years she had got Robb, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran, Rickon, Lyanna and Hoster. The last two were also twins and had been born two years after Rickon. But she also knew it was hard for some women, her sister for example. In regards to the horrible cold, she didn’t think it make it harder. If anything it had made it easier because it was even more pleasant to have a warm body close when it was very cold outside.

”I haven’t had any trouble with it at all, but I know women that it is hard for. I think it’s different for everyone, some easily gets pregnant, some has to try many times and for longer periods of time in order to get pregnant” she said. “But of course willingness from both parts doesn’t hurt. And the cold doesn’t change anything from what I know. Except for that it’s nice to have someone close.”

”How long did it take for you the first time?”

”I conceived Robb and Jon on my wedding night.”

Margaery mumbled something under her breath that Catelyn couldn’t quite hear, but it sounded like it was something along the lines of ”hard to do it faster”. Catelyn had to bite her lip in order to not laugh.

”What is the bedding ceremony like?” was Margaery’s next question.

Bedding ceremonies was something made up by men. No woman enjoyed it, but they had to endure. Hers had included torn clothing, hands in places where she wanted no one to touch her and comments that she could have lived without. And the actual bedding had not been very good either. Nothing against Ned, but she had not felt much at all.

”I can say that being carried off is the worst part. When it’s time for the bedding most men will be quite deep in their cups, so they won’t be very... careful with you. And they will say bawdy things. At my bedding a man told my husband that my breasts were so good that he wished he had never been weaned. That is the kind of stuff you will hear. You can return it if that makes you feel any better. The bedding itself isn’t bad, but also probably not the best thing you’ve felt that first time. But don’t worry, it gets better.”

Catelyn and Ned had absolutely not done it perfectly that first time. It had been a little clumsy and not very pleasurable. It had taken time to learn each other, but all that time was entirely worth it. She knew every little part of Ned and exactly how to make him feel pleasure. And Ned knew precisely what to do in order for her to come undone in his arms.

”Does it?”

”Practice makes perfect, my lady” was all Catelyn could reply to that.

Margaery giggled.

”Do I have to share a bed with my husband?”

”Not if you don’t want to” Catelyn assured her. ”There are no laws that say that a lord and lady must share a bed. You don’t even have to share chambers if you don’t want to.”

”Do you share a bed?”

”We do.”

Catelyn was too cold to sleep alone. She didn’t understand how she had survived the first two years up in the North when Ned had only came to her occasionally. Or how she had not frozen to death during the night since he seemed to have abandoned her.

In the early years she had been bothered by her lust for Ned, had been ashamed of how wanton she was and had been afraid of that he would be disgusted by it. But he filled her every need each time she wanted him to, whispered about how beautiful she was, how much he enjoyed what they were doing. And with time the fear and shame faded. Though she was still sometimes embarrassed by herself.

”Is religion a problem?”

”Not if you respect each other. You may not believe in his gods, but as long as you respect that he does, and he does the same for you it’s alright. Faith won’t be a cause of conflict.”

Ned had built her a little sept that she could pray in, respected that she didn’t like the godswood and its heart tree. When Margaery married Robb the sept would be hers too. Their husbands could keep the godswood for themselves.

“That direwolf...” Margaery said. “Do I need to be careful? It’s so big. And it’s got big teeth.”

“The direwolves are kind, they won’t hurt you. At least not intentionally. Though they can be quite fearsome, I know. I would lie if I said I wasn’t afraid of them in the beginning.”

She missed the time when they had been pups. They had been easier to handle, easier to feed and not so scary. Now all of them were freakishly large. And though they were tame and loyal like common dogs, they were very different from dogs and a lot harder to take care of.

”Do you ever get used to the cold?”

Catelyn laughed. You didn’t. Never. You walked around wrapped in furs and you slept wrapped in furs and you ate wrapped in furs and you prayed wrapped in furs. You lived your life wrapped in furs. And you were still cold.

”No, you don’t. Not me, at least. I keep my husband in my bed for a reason.”

Margaery laughed a little.

”And here I thought it was love.”

She looked up and saw Ned standing in the doorway. That’s why Margaery had laughed. So he had finally decided to turn up. Where the hell had he been? It had been more than a day since she last saw him.

”It’s really cold up here” she said with a smile. “And you’re warm.”

”Starks were made for cold” he said.

”And I was not, good thing I have you. Now, I’d like it if you told me something. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since we broke our fast yesterday.”

”I can tell you many things, my lady, but not that” he said. ”Not right now, at least. You will get to know soon.”

What an annoying answer. Couldn’t he just tell her where he had been and why he had abandoned her the night before?

”So what are you doing here then, my lord?”

”Do you know what day it is?”

That was not an answer to her question. Not even a little.

”No, Eddard, I don’t know what day it is. The celebration of abandoning-your-wife-and-not-telling-her-where-you-have-been?” she asked.

”Lady Margaery, may I have a moment alone with my wife?”

”Of course, my lord” Margaery said and rose from her chair. ”Thank you so much, Lady Catelyn.”

”Come back if there’s anything more you want to know” Catelyn told her.

Margaery didn’t turn to look at her, but she curtsied anyway.

”Thank you.”

Then she left and Catelyn put the veil on her desk. She leaned back in her chair and looked up at Ned.

”Now tell me, what day is it?”

He closed the door, and walked over to Margaery’s chair. He turned it around so that it faced her and sat down.

”Do you really not remember?” he asked

Catelyn tried to remember. It was the middle of the summer, there were no celebrations. It had been an extremely long summer and a warm one, even up in the north, but there was nothing to celebrate, that wouldn’t come until the the big autumn harvests. And there were no namedays, and the wedding was to take place in two weeks.

”I’m sorry, but I really don’t remember. What day is it?”

”I’ll have to show you something to make you remember then. Come with me” he said and stood up again.

That made her curious. What could he show her that made her remember? Did it have something to do with where he had been?

Ned offered her an arm and she took it as she rose from her chair. He caught her lips in a kiss before she was standing straight. It took her by surprise, but she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She had missed him during the night, the bed was so cold without him.

”I’m sorry for leaving you last night” he said when they broke the kiss. ”I’ll make it up tonight. I promise.”

Why couldn’t it just be tonight already?

”Sounds nice to me” she smiled and kissed him again.

”But before that” he mumbled. ”I will show you what I’ve been up to.”


	2. A husband in rainbow light

He had her blindfolded. She didn’t have the slightest idea about where they were going, except for that they had left the Great Keep and were outside. It was cold and she could feel the snow under her boots. And she could hear the people around her. They must have been staring at her, it wasn’t every day Ned Stark paraded his lady blindfolded through the castle. Well, of course she couldn’t know if they looked at her, she couldn’t see. And she highly disliked that, the snow made the ground even more uneven than it was when it was bare. Ned had her in a tight grip and guided her, but she was very afraid of falling.

”Do I really have to wear this?” she asked.

”Yes, it’ll ruin the surprise if you can see it from outside. But it’s not far now.”

”You must have walked me around the whole castle twice by now” she complained.

”Not really” another voice said. ”It’s been four courtyards.”

Catelyn snorted. She had been blindfolded for way too long, no matter how far she had walked. She wanted to be able to see again. She had underestimated how much she liked seeing.

”Good day, Theon” she said. ”How long have you been next to me?”

”Since you left the Great Keep, my lady” the boy informed her.

She could see in front of her how her grinned like he always did. He had left the castle about two weeks earlier together with some men, Ned had sent him to White Harbor for something. He had not told her what and she had not asked. She had just assumed that it was things that had been shipped to the North for the wedding. And Theon seemed to be back with whatever it was.

”Do you have anything to do with this?” she asked suspiciously.

Catelyn was very curious about what Ned had been doing all night, but she didn’t like the thought of Theon Greyjoy being involved in it. Not because she distrusted Ned, she had no reasons to believe that he would do anything that she wouldn’t like. But Theon’s involvement still made her nervous.

”No need to be rude, Lady Stark” Theon chuckled. ”But yes, I helped your lord with this.”

She hoped that the gods would have mercy on her soul.

”Ned, what have you done?” she asked.

”Nothing that will displease you, my love” he replied. ”I promise you.”

She sighed. She trusted him, she really did. But the blindfold was making her nervous.

“Bran! Get down from there” Ned suddenly shouted.

Catelyn stopped abruptly. She knew exactly what was happening even though she couldn’t see.

“Brandon Stark, what have I told you about climbing?” she said.

“That I shouldn’t do it because I might fall and get hurt” Bran’s voice said somewhere to her left.

“Yes. You are twelve, you should know better!”

“I haven’t fallen yet!”

“No, but a day might come when you do fall. I don’t know what I would do if you got hurt. And I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if you died. I don’t want to lose you.”

“Okay, I won’t climb anymore.”

She knew his tell for lying, but she couldn’t see it. Since she was blindfolded. Gods, she hated it so much.

“Ned, did he look at his feet?”

“He did, my lady.”

“It seems like our son is a little liar.”

“I’m not!” Bran said.

And suddenly Catelyn was shoved in the back and stumbled forward with a cry. She tripped on her skirts and would have fallen if Ned had not grabbed her arm and pulled her up again. And when she stood upright with her heart racing in her chest she could hear heavy breathing behind her and feel a hot breath against her neck.

“Are you okay, Cat?”

“I think I might’ve died a second” she managed to say as she tried to slow her heartbeats.

She thought that what she had just experienced felt similar to what heart failure felt like. And she wasn’t ready for that feeling. Gods, she hated the blindfold.

“Bran, keep that wolf of yours in check or I’ll have it chained up in the kennels!” she said angrily when she regained control of herself.

“He didn’t mean to scare you, he just doesn’t realize his strength!”

“You need to have control over him! We can’t have a gigantic untamed wolf running around the castle.”

“He’s not untamed! He just wanted to smell you!”

“He does not need to touch me in order to smell me.”

“But that’s just his way of doing it!”

“You have to understand that he can’t do this to others than you. We can’t have them doing this to our guests, can we? It’ll terrify them, just the looks of Summer is scary enough.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Now hurry to your lessons with Maester Luwin!”

“Yes, Mother” Bran sighed.

And so they continued their never ending walk. She could hear a door creak open and suddenly they were not outside anymore. She immediately recognized the scents of various oils and scented candles. They were in her sept. Had he done something to her sept? She desperately wanted to ask, but remained quiet, he would tell her soon. He walked her down the rows of benches and up to the middle of the heptagon with the seven statues. She couldn’t hear anyone in there, not even Theon anymore. It seemed he had stayed outside. Then Ned let go of her, and she was standing all alone in what she believed to be the middle of the heptagon building.

”Take off the blindfold” he told her.

Catelyn slowly raised her hands to remove it, and suddenly her previously black world bathed in all the colors of the rainbow. She blinked, trying not to be blinded by the light and all the colors. The windows. They had been regular glass, now they were of stained glass. Stained glass in more colors than she had thought existed. It shone down on the statues and the floor tiles, made the little sept more alive than it had ever been. It was like the sept in Riverrun. Exactly like she remembered it from her childhood years. She stared at it in wonder, it was so beautiful.

She turned and looked at Ned, who smiled at her. And the sight of him in the rainbow light from the windows of a sept made her remember.

”It’s our wedding day!” she exclaimed.

It had been twenty years since she married him in a sept with stained glass and seven statues. He had agreed to marry her there even though he believed in the Old Gods.

”Twenty years today. That’s a long time” he said and snaked an arm around her waist.

”It is” she agreed and leaned against him. ”You’re not growing tired of me, are you?”

”I can’t get enough of you.”

”Thank you, Ned. This is so so beautiful. I love it!”

He only kissed her in response. She couldn’t help the soft sigh that escaped her, she liked it when he kissed her like that. And before she knew it he had her with her back up against a wall. His hands were all over her, it was a matter of time before they found their way up under her dress.

”This is not the right place to do this” Catelyn said out of breath. ”We can go back to my chambers.”

”Are you worried about how your gods would feel?” Ned asked and pressed his lips to her neck. “Because I seem to recall that you didn’t object to doing it in the godswood, in full view of my gods.”

She had to bite her tongue in order not to moan. The sensation of his hot breath against her neck was enough to drive her crazy.

”No. It’s not the gods. Our castle is currently filled to the breaking point with southrons who pray to the Seven” she breathed. ”And even though you built the sept for me, they are allowed to come here too.”

He chuckled.

”It’s hard to enter a sept with a locked door” he said and kneeled before her.

It was hard to argue with that. And hard to deny the fact that she very much wanted to do exactly what he was planning. She wanted him to take her right there, in the rainbow light. And in full view of all the gods that wanted to see how much she loved him.

”Septa Mordane will have our heads” Catelyn said as he disappeared beneath her skirts.

”I won’t be the one to tell her” Ned promised and she felt how he began to work her smallclothes down her legs.

”You are a very sinful–”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.


	3. A headache and a supper

How was Catelyn going to ever pray in her sept again without thinking of that? Thanks to Ned, she didn’t believe it was possible. But it had felt good, so so good. And it still occupied her mind hours later even though they had only been there for a couple of minutes. She didn't have time to be distracted but she found herself thinking back on her moment with Ned in the sept over and over again. Tonight was so far away, she just wanted to get to it immediately. She was a patient woman usually, but with all that was going on it was so nice to just relax into Ned’s touch every once in a while. It was such a sweet feeling to let him take care of her in every way imaginable and just forget about all the things that screamed to be done.

She was currently trying to get the seating to go together. And it was giving her a headache straight from the deepest of the seven hells. The Boltons didn’t go very well with any of the houses with lands next to them, there had been conflict there, to say the least. It had involved a few angry letters and meetings about the fact that Roose Bolton had a very hard time with keeping his hunting on his lands. But maybe she could place them close to the Dustins. There had been no conflict there that Catelyn was aware of. But maybe she was wrong and the whole feast would fall because of it. All she knew was that she didn’t want the Dustins close to herself. Barbrey Dustin seemed to dislike Catelyn fiercely for some unknown reason, and she wasn’t very fond of Ned either. And the Reeds of the Neck rarely showed up at Winterfell, but now they were coming for the wedding of their liege lord’s eldest son. They went well with everyone, didn't they? Or had there been some conflicts with the Flints of Flint’s Finger about men disappearing in the swamp? She had a feeling of that Ned had mentioned it to her some time ago while they were getting ready for bed. Had they solved that with good tones or had it ended badly? Well, it was wiser to not place them next to each other, she didn't want to risk anything. Fights could end with injured and dead men and she wanted no such things to happen in her hall, she wanted no further conflict between any houses in the north. 

She sat like that for what at least felt like hours. With the list of everyone who had said that they would attend and a drawing of all the tables in the Great Hall in front of her. Slowly she crossed names off the list and filled the tables with them and every once in a while she had to start over with a table because she had forgotten something or someone, or because she had placed someone too close or too far away from the high table. And when she finally looked down at the finished seating plan she realized that she had forgotten herself, Ned, and the Tyrells, because she had forgotten that Robb and Margaery would have the high table all to themselves, as was tradition. Gods, her little Robb was getting married. He would have a wife soon, would become a father and have a little family of his own. Time went too fast, they were all slipping from her fingers before her eyes. Maybe it was greedy to ask the gods, Ned’s or hers, for another child, but she wanted one last child that was hers before her children started having children. She would be a grandmother soon if the gods blessed Robb and Margaery with a child. She had thought of it often since Margaery and her family arrived at. Winterfell. That there would be children running around around the castle that would call her “Grandmother” instead of “Mother”. The thought made her both very happy and sad. She was getting old.

And that was not what she was supposed to be thinking about.

She sighed deeply and rested her head in her hands, closing her eyes. Her head was pounding. How could seating be so hard when she had done it a hundred times before? And why did she even bother? Everyone would start moving around and changing seats the moment all the courses had been served. As soon as the dancing started all she had planned would fall apart anyway. But it had to be done, because her eldest son was getting married and it had to be perfect. And she had to make sure all of the more important guests fit inside the Great Hall. There would be fires and food outside for the free riders and men that had came with their lords, but the more important men had to be inside the hall.

“My lady, is everything alright?”

She raised her head from her hands and saw that Maester Luwin had entered the room. She had been too deep in her thoughts and feelings to notice. Her immediate answer to his question was “No, everything is not okay. I have a headache, I can’t get the seating together and my children are growing up too fast”, but that was not what she said.

“Yes, Maester. Everything is alright, I’m just trying to get the seating together” Catelyn said and looked down at the papers before her. “It’s harder than one would think it is.”

She, Ned and the Tyrells had to be closest to the high table, so she would have to move everyone back a little. But then the people at the end of the hall wouldn’t fit inside. Maybe if she squeezed them together a little everyone would fit inside. But then they would practically sit in each other’s laps. She decided that maybe they would think that it was worth it to attend the wedding feast of the eldest son of Eddard and Catelyn Stark. Or they could always go outside, she had no doubts about that the celebrations wouldn’t be big outside the Great Hall too.

“Do you need my help, my lady?” Luwin asked. “Or do you want me to send for anyone?”

“There’s no need” she said and frowned. “Or wait. Send for Sansa, Arya, and Lady Margaery. I will have need of them.”

The Maester bowed before he left her with her struggles again. She tried to get it together, tried to make it work. And every now and then she suddenly remembered something that forced her to make a drastic changing to the seating. Wedding planning really was a lot, she would be exhausted by the time it was all over. She almost longed for it. It would be good to have the amount of work go back to normal.

“Mother.”

Arya poked her head into the room.

“Maester Luwin said you wanted to see me.”

“Yes” Catelyn said. “Have a seat, sweetling.” 

She smiled at the thought of getting company in her misery. Company that would help her put an end to it. So that she could bury herself in the next one by getting started on other things that really needed to be done.

“You’re doing seating, aren’t you?” Arya said as she sat down in a chair on the other side of the desk. “Robb said you would be doing that today.”

“I’m tempted to let him do the seating himself” Catelyn said with another sigh. “It’s his wedding, not mine.”

“Nah, it’s been some time since you married.”

“Twenty years today.”

Sansa also came in through the open door, immediately joining the conversation.

“Did you like Father’s gift?” she asked. “I helped him with it.”

“It was lovely” Catelyn assured her.

It had been a wonderful gift. She had nothing for Ned, which made her feel pretty bad. She had not even remembered that it was their wedding day. Maybe it was actually her who had to make something up to him that night.

“It was, wasn’t it? The colors were so pretty!”

“They really were. But that was not why I called you here, I need help with the seating. It has to be done today, preferably before supper.”

The fact that there was a possibility of that they would have to keep on with the seating after supper made Catelyn extremely tired. She just wanted to eat in peace and then retire to her chambers with Ned. But that wouldn’t happen, since she just couldn’t get the damn seating to work out. When Jon married his Alys she would not volunteer to do more than she absolutely had to. Haha, who was she trying to fool? She would absolutely take on more work than she could actually handle and then she would curse herself for not remembering how stressed she had been when she was planning Robb’s wedding.

“Mother, I can see in your eyes that you really want this to be done before supper. So could you please hand me the paper so that we can have a look?” Arya said and stretched out a hand.

Catelyn gave her daughter the paper and leaned back in her chair while Sansa and Arya looked at it. She sat quiet and just listened to them talk with low voices about what you could do with the damn seating. All her daughters were absolutely brilliant girls and she fully trusted that they would do a good job with whatever task she gave them.

“You wanted to see me, Lady Stark?”

Margaery looked into the room.

“Oh yes, come inside” Catelyn said and smiled. “We are trying to fix the seating, would you mind giving us a hand?”

“Not at all, I would love to help!”

Thank the gods. For a moment Catelyn considered to leave the girls to it and take a short break. But did she have time for that? Absolutely not, she needed to look over all the resources and shippings to Winterfell so that the kitchens had everything they needed for all the courses that would be served. But she would rather discuss with Sansa, Arya and Margaery than sit in silence and just read through page upon page of documentations of the latest wagons that had arrived to the castle.

And so the four women sat huddled around the desk and tried again and again to get everything together. The sun started to sink down underneath the horizon outside the windows and Catelyn was forced to light candles and get a fire burning in the hearth so that they would be able to see anything. 

“Almost all these people are new to me” Margaery said. “It’s hard.”

“None of them are new to me and I’ve been here for hours. It doesn’t make it any easier” Catelyn said.

Maybe it actually would have been easier if she hadn’t been married to the liege lord of all those people. She would’t have had to take so much into consideration because she would have known nothing. What wouldn’t she have given to just know nothing of all the squabbles among the northern lords?

“But if we do it this way” Sansa said.

“Nope, that won’t work” Arya said immediately. “Where are the Umbers? How could you even forget them? You are betrothed to the Smalljon!”

“You know, Mother, now I understand why you look like you are thrice widowed” Sansa sighed.

Catelyn had been aware of that she probably looked as tired as she felt, but honestly, was it really that bad? Maybe it was. And on top of looking like hew was thrice widowed, she was getting really hungry. She had not eaten anything since she broke her fast and there had been many hours since that. 

“I’m glad you get it, sweetling” she said. 

All four of them looked up at the same time when it knocked on the door and Ned came in. 

“Could you come outside with me, Cat? I need a word.”

She wondered what he had to say. Had anything happened? He didn’t look worried. But he didn’t look very happy either. He just seemed tired. How lovely that they were in the same mood.

“Of course” she said and rose form her chair. “You can continue, girls, I’ll be right back.”

They walked out of the solar together and Ned closed the door behind her. And without saying a word he pulled her into an embrace. She laid her arms around his waist and leaned against him as he buried his face in her hair. 

“I’m tired” he said.

“Me too. This really is a lot.”

“Jon will have to wait.”

“Preferably until I’m dead and buried” she said and smiled. “That way I won’t have to do anything.”

He chuckled softly at that. Then they were quiet again. She closed her eyes and just took in the feeling of his arms around her. His heat and the smell of him, it was so calming. She had really needed that. 

“Was that what you wanted to say?” she asked after a few minutes.

“No, but I needed to have you close for just a moment” Ned said. “What I actually came to say is that supper is being served now. You should come down to the Great Hall to eat.”

That meant that they were not going to be done before supper. How absolutely terrific. Catelyn was ready to cry at that point.

“We’ll be down soon” she said. “So keep my chair empty.”

“No, you should come now. You need a break” Ned said softly.

“I have already had a break today. And it was an excellent break, but I don’t have time for one more. And if I finish it now I will be free after supper.”

She looked up at him. 

“I seem to recall that we had plans for tonight. We won’t be able to carry out with those if I have to sit up with that half the night because I took too many breaks.”

He sighed and kissed her forehead.

“Okay” he said. “But promise that if it takes too long you will take a break and come down and get some food. You need to eat, my love.”

“I won’t be long” she said. “I promise.”

She gave him a quick kiss before she turned to go back inside. But just as she was about to lay her hand on the door handle the door flew open and Arya almost danced out.

“We did it, Mother!” she shouted. “We solved the seating!”

Oh thank the gods, old and new. Finally it was over. Catelyn could go down and have supper! She was free from the seating.

Sansa and Margaery also appeared in the doorway behind Arya, both of them were shining. And an overwhelming feeling of pride took over Catelyn. Those were her girls, in one way or another. And they had actually thought out a way to make it all work. Oh how she loved them for it.

“You’re brilliant, all three of you” Catelyn smiled. “I knew you would do it!”

Well, if she was going to be completely honest, she had had her moments of doubt about that they would actually managed to finish the task. But those were all washed away, now she was purely happy and proud of them.

“Ned” she said and turned to him once more. “Please take me down to have some supper. I’m starving.”

~*~

”To twenty more years” Ned said and raised his cup to her.

”I’m a greedy woman, I want at least thirty” Catelyn replied and raised her own cup.

”To thirty more years then.”

”To thirty more years” she smiled and drank.

The Great Hall was so filled with people that you could almost believe that it was the day of the wedding. It wasn’t, so many people had arrived with the Tyrells. And northern lords and their parties also started to arrive, it was just a little more than two weeks left after all. Winterfell and the winter town were both filled with more people than ever. Catelyn, who was in her usual chair next to Ned’s high seat, could see each and every person in the hall. She had some of the Tyrell family to her right, the rest was on Ned’s left.

”I didn’t mean to listen, but I overheard your conversation” Olenna Tyrell said. ”I want to congratulate you on your twenty years.”

”Thank you, my lady” Catelyn said and smiled again.

”Standing out with a man for that long is an accomplishment” Olenna continued.

Catelyn glanced at Ned for a second. He was in conversation with Mace Tyrell, Olenna’s son.

“It’s hard sometimes, but worth it in the end.”

Ned could absolutely drive her to madness every now and then, but she loved him. He was a loving and good husband to her, and a loving and good father to their children. He was a good, but just lord to his people. She couldn't have asked for a better person to share her life with. He had helped her into her second home and loved her even when she felt like she was unlovable.

Olenna was just about to reply when someone grabbed Catelyn’s arm. She looked down and saw little Hoster. He was a copy of Ned, but with her own eyes and her nose. The Stark face and hair with the Tully blue eyes. He and Lyanna were the only one of their children who had taken after something from both her and Ned.

”What is it, Hoster?” she asked.

”Lyanna hit me” the little boy whined. ”With a stick.”

”How did she get a stick in here?” Catelyn mumbled to herself and looked out over the hall in order to find Lyanna.

Her handmaiden should have been watching her. And prevented her from bringing a stick to supper. It was hard to find such a small girl in such a large crowd, but Catelyn managed to catch sight of her youngest daughter’s fiery red hair between two tables.

”Excuse me for a moment, Lady Olenna” Catelyn said.

She took Hoster’s little hand in hers and walked around the high table to go down and get Lyanna. It was clearly bedtime for her and her twin brother.

”Lyanna!” she said sharply. ”What are you doing with that stick?”

The little girl smiled up at her. She too had Ned’s long face, but she had Catelyn’s red hair and blue eyes. She was an extremely charming girl at the age of six, she knew exactly how to get what she wanted and how to get out of anything. She owned the heart of every person in Winterfell. Especially Ned’s, she could just smile and he would immediately forget everything about how she had misbehaved. It was as though her little face smiling at him made the Lord of Winterfell completely blind.

The thing was that she was not always like that, she did everything she was told when she wanted. She could behave like a perfect little lady when she wanted to. Some days she was impeccable and some days she was a nightmare. It depended solely on what she felt that day. But no matter which, she was always the most charming little thing to have ever walked around in the world. Catelyn couldn’t deny that.

”It’s a sword, Mother!” she explained cheerfully. ”I’m protecting people from evil dragons!”

”And why did you hit your brother?” Catelyn asked.

”He said I’ll never be a real dragonslayer. So I hit him, because he is an evil dragon.”

”Dragons doesn’t exist anymore. Maester Luwin says so” Hoster sneered from Catelyn’s side. ”You’re stupid for thinking they’re still real.”

Her little twin pair was usually very tight, they were together at all times. When they started getting cranky with each other she knew it was bedtime, and by the morning they would be partners in mischief again.

”Well, you look like a dragon!” Lyanna pouted. ”Ugly!”

”Hush, both of you” she told them. ”It appears you’ve both done something bad, I want you to apologize to each other.”

Lyanna and Hoster remained silent. They could be stubborn as ox, it was very hard to get them to do something they absolutely didn’t want to do.

”I want you to apologize to each other” she repeated, a little more strictly the second time. ”And I want you to mean it.”

”I’m sorry” Lyanna mumbled and looked down at the ground. ”I shouldn’t have hit you.”

”And I’m sorry for saying that you’re stupid” Hoster almost whispered.

”Will you go to bed as friends?” Catelyn asked.

”Yes” Lyanna said and smiled at Hoster.

Hoster smiled back at her. It never took long for them to make up, fortunately.

Catelyn waved for their handmaidens to come and put them to bed. Then she returned to the high table.

”Your youngest daughter was slaying dragons instead of eating her supper” she informed Ned when she sat down again.

As she had suspected, Ned only laughed. Lyanna could have killed someone and Ned still would have waved it off.

”She has a wild imagination, our daughter” he chuckled.

”She’s your daughter for as long as she pretends her brother is a dragon and hits him with sticks.”

”She’s more like you.”

”When have you ever seen me hit my brother with a stick?” Catelyn asked, slightly offended.

You wouldn’t have found her in the Great Hall of Riverrun with a stick. If she had been to hit her brother with a stick, she would have done it where no one would be able to see her so that there were no witnesses. You had to do it with finesse, you didn’t want to get caught.

Ned took her hand and looked her in the eye.

”I mean she has the charm that I lack. You know your way with speech, my love.”

Ned was excellent with speech when he had to. He could have seduced the queen if he set his mind on it. Catelyn knew that better than anyone.

”You two could stab me in my sleep and I would forgive you as I bled out and died” Ned continued.

Catelyn laughed.

”Your northerners wouldn’t forgive us though. I suspect that my head would be separated from my body before you had time to die.”

”I don’t want to find out if you’re right” Ned said.

”Well, I’m not about to stab you. And I don’t think Lyanna will stab you” she told him. 

”So I have no reason to worry when I go to bed tonight?”

Catelyn smiled as she leaned over towards Ned so that no one would hear what she said.

”Not if you make up for leaving me yesterday” she whispered.

”You won’t even remember it when I’m done with you.”

”Is that a promise?” she asked teasingly.

He kissed her on the lips then. There, in full view of everyone in the hall. She was almost ashamed of how much she liked that. She belonged to him, and he would have everyone know that.

”It is.”


	4. A mother and her children

”You spoil me” she panted.

Catelyn was laying on her back and looking up at the canopy. A wide smile was on her lips. That had been more than good, that had been great. She wouldn’t have said no to celebrating twenty years every night. Maybe she would suggest that each day should be an accomplishment and that they should therefore celebrate every night.

Ned pushed himself up on one elbow and looked at her.

“It’s you who spoil me. Gods, Cat. How do you expect me to ever willingly leave the bed after you give me that?”

“I don’t want to leave the bed either.”

He laughed.

”Happy anniversary.”

”Happy anniversary.” 

He leaned down and kissed her. It was a soft kiss, a kiss full of love. The best type of kiss. She closed her eyes and wished that she could have frozen time so that they could stay like that forever. It was just perfect.

”I love you” he mumbled against her lips.

She slid a hand up into his greying hair.

”I love you too.”

So so much. Love was pleasant, she was lucky to have a good husband that she could love. And that loved her back.

A knock on the door interrupted them. It took Catelyn no time at all to heat up and become very irritated at whoever was knocking on her door that late. Being interrupted was about the last thing she wanted.

”What now?” she groaned.

”Don’t open” Ned said and kissed her again. ”We are available in the morning, not now.”

He was right. The person at the door could wait a couple of hours, it couldn’t be too bad. She leaned into the kiss, pulled Ned a little closer. But against her will she came to her senses after a second knock on the door. If it was important enough to come to them in the middle of the night and knock twice, they couldn’t just ignore it.

”We can’t” she sighed and pushed him away.

She left him in the bed and wrapped a robe around her very much naked body. While doing so, she caught sight of herself in the looking glass that was standing in a corner of the room. Her hair was a great mess, her cheeks were still flushed with color, there was a mark on her neck. A very visible mark that was too high up on her neck for her to cover it with the robe. Catelyn Stark was in no way presentable to anyone besides her husband in that moment, but she had to pretend that she was. If she acted like it, maybe they wouldn’t question her appearance.

She looked at Ned and shook her head.

”Oh cover yourself” she told him.

He only grinned at her, not moving. And she couldn’t help but letting her eyes roam over his body. She wanted him. She wanted to run her hands over his muscled body, she wanted to touch him, and taste him. She wanted to put her mouth against his cock, she wanted to hear him moan her name in response. She wanted to feel his skin against hers. But satisfying her desires would have to wait.

”Don’t get me wrong, I like the view. But I want to be the only one enjoying it.”

When he still didn’t do anything, she quickly walked over to the bed and threw a blanket over him. You had to do everything yourself if you wanted to get anything done in that bloody castle. Then she opened the door and found a very impatient Arya outside. And there was a lot of people running around. Which wasn’t unusual during the day, but it was in the middle of the night. Why were everyone awake?

”Finally! How long can it take to open a door?” she asked.

”It’s late” Catelyn said.

She tried so hard to pretend like the love bite on her neck didn’t exist. Even though it did and she could see on the instant change in Arya’s body language that she had noticed it.

”It doesn’t look like you had blown out the candles for the night” Arya said and raised her eyebrows.

”Has anything happened, Arya?”

”Lya and Hossie are out of bed and hiding somewhere” she said. ”We are already looking for them, but we thought you might want to know.”

Not again. That was the second time that month and last time it had taken hours to find them. They wouldn’t have any fun the following months, that was a thing to be very sure of. And no dessert until they were fifteen. It would be time for bed the second the sun reached the horizon. And guards outside the door to their room.

”I should have suspected that they were up to something” Catelyn said and took a deep breath so that her head wouldn’t explode. ”We’ll be out in a minute.”

She closed the door a little harder than she had intended. She really couldn’t get one quiet night with Ned. Of course something came in the way. Of course it was some of the children. Of course it was Lyanna and Hoster.

”Get up, it’s time to hunt for children!” she said to Ned and threw him his breeches that had ended up on the floor. ”I need you to stop me from actually killing them when I catch them.”

”What a way to end this pleasant night!” Ned said.

He laughed as he got out of the bed. Gods, she was seeing red and he laughed. He really couldn’t be mad the second Lyanna was involved in anything.

”No matter how much Lyanna tries, you won’t let her out of it. Do you understand?”

”Aye, Lady Stark” he said and bowed before her.

”Ned!”

She managed to dress herself with just some help from Ned with lacing her dress. Then she brushed her hair in a rush so that she wouldn’t look like something from north of the Wall, and let it flow free over shoulders so that it could hide the love bite. Gods, she really should have stopped Ned there. She was out of the room in a minute as she had said and Ned was not long after her.

She immediately turned left and towards the stairs. There was a small and very dark space beneath the steps at one place, you couldn’t see it if you didn’t know it was there. She knew they liked to hide there and suspected that she would find them there. If not, they were at least somewhere in the Great Keep, there were guards at the ways in and out that would have stopped them if they had tried to get to the rest of Winterfell. But the Great Keep was just that. Great. So it brought her close to no joy.

She walked past an open door, but stopped when a sleepy voice spoke to her.

”What is happening?”

Margaery looked very confused even though she seemed to be half asleep.

”It’s nothing, dear. My youngest are out of bed. Nothing to worry about, they can’t leave the Great Keep.”

”Oh, I’ll help you look for them” Margaery said immediately.

In a second the sleepy veil that had covered her eyes was gone. 

”There’s no need for it. I’m sure that they will turn up any second. You should rest, tomorrow will be a busy day” Catelyn said and smiled.

”You will be my family in two weeks. And I should help my family” Margaery insisted. ”Family always comes first.”

The gods had sent a woman from the brightest of the seven heavens to marry into Catelyn’s family. ’Family always comes first’. Catelyn had grown up by those words, she had taught her children those words. Family was the most important thing in the world, and her son would marry a woman who understood that. It warmed her heart.

”Thank you” she said.

”It’s nothing” Margaery smiled.

Catelyn nodded and continued her way towards the space where she was sure she would find her little twins. And to her great disappointment, it wasn’t quite that easy. She wouldn’t get to go to bed with her husband again. They were not there.

Her children were a little piece of heaven that she got to carry with her on earth, but at times she got ungodly tired of them. When she had to run around the Great Keep in the middle of night in order to find them, for example. That wasn’t very nice.

~*~

The next day Catelyn was even more tired. She had not believed that to be possible, but appearently it was. There were not many hours of sleep in her system, but it was better than nothing, she supposed. She felt like she could have fallen asleep standing up when she spoke to the cooks. Everything seemed to be in order though, so that was a relief. Catelyn left the kitchens and walked out into the chilly air. It was a cloudy day, and windy. The winds were cold, grabbed at her cloak and got underneath her clothes. She hated the northern winds with a burning passion. If only that passion could have kept her warm. Well, if she was going to look upon it from the bright side, the cold had jerked her awake and it kept her body alert.

She walked past the courtyard on her way back to the keep. Robb and Jon were sparring so she stopped watch them for a few minutes. Margaery was also there, watching the young men with a small smile playing on her lips. Robb was physically stronger than Jon, but Jon were quicker. They danced around and tried to get in blows on the other one, but no one ever got the upper hand. Until Robb looked up for just a second and noticed that Margaery was watching them. He grinned sheepishly at her and though he was a bit away, Catelyn was quite sure of that he was blushing. But then Jon had taken advantage of his brother’s distraction and knocked Robb to the ground. He kicked Robb’s sword out of his hand and held the tip of his sword to Robb’s chest. 

“Ha!” he said. “Yield!”

“Okay, I yield” Robb answered after a moment of silence.

And despite his defeat he was smiling when Jon helped him up on his feet again. But he wasn’t smiling at Jon, he was still smiling at Margaery. And he walked over to her and started talking to her. When Catelyn walked away so that she could carry on with her duties she also smiled. Robb had her appearence, but for a moment she had only seen Ned. Robb had smiled at Margaery the way Ned had sometimes smiled at Catelyn when their relationship was still very new and they had just began develop feelings for each other. And she thought that maybe she had witnessed a seed that would grow into a beautiful flower. 

“Why is Robb so happy?”

Rickon ran up behind her.

“I think Lady Margaery makes Robb happy” Catelyn said and ruffled Rickon’s hair.

It had already been quite ruffled because of the wind, she had not made anything more messy than it had already been.

“Is he in love with her?” he asked with a grimace. 

“Maybe he is. I don’t know.”

“Is he going to kiss her like Father kisses you?”

Catelyn laughed at the boy’s expression. Rickon was eight, not yet old enough to understand the feeling of when someone you liked smiled at you and your chest fluttered. He had expressed disgust when he had found Catelyn and Ned kissing some time before, and had later asked Catelyn why you would ever want to kiss someone. She had told him that sometimes when a girl and a boy likes each other a lot they could kiss each other because it felt nice. 

“I can’t answer that, you will have to ask Robb” she said.

“Okay.”

Rickon practically bounced back to Robb and Margaery. Catelyn had to stop in her tracks. She had not expected him to actually ask Robb, but she absolutely had to see what would happen. So she turned and looked as Rickon approached his eldest brother. And laughed when she saw Robb turn as red as his hair when he heard Rickon’s question. Margaery also laughed.

“Mother!” he shouted angrily.

“Yes?” she called back.

“Why did you tell him that?”

“What did I tell him?”

“You know perfectly well!”

“No, son, I don’t have a clue of what you are talking about” Catelyn said innocently. “Well, now I have business to attend to, you’ll have to excuse me.”

She made her way back to her chambers and sat down with Margaery’s veil. She was actually pretty confident about that she would be finished with it that day. So she sat there with the veil and her needle, slowly making progress on it. Margaery was actually going to wear it when she marred Catelyn’s son. Her eldest son. He was getting married. And tears began to form in Catelyn’s eyes when she after a while actually found herself sitting with the finished veil in her hands. She had made that, she had made that for her future daughter. The girl that made Robb smile and blush and get distracted. Oh, to be young and foolish and in love. She smiled through her tears as she held it up so that she could see it properly. She hoped that Margaery would like it, she hoped that it would look good with the dress. She hoped that her son would have a good marriage. Margaery really seemed to make Robb happy, and the other way around. She was happy for them. Her little boy was getting a wife.

“Mother?”

She looked up and saw that she had not closed the door properly. Lyanna had peaked her little head through the opening.

“Yes, sweetling?”

“Can I come in?”

“Of course” Catelyn said and smiled. “Where is your brother?”

She didn’t have to specify which one of them.

“He wanted to watch Robb and Jon fight with their swords, but I thought that was boring” Lyanna said as she slowly came into the room. “Were you crying?”

“Yes” Catelyn said and dried her tears with the back of one hand. “I guess I was.”

“Why?” she asked.

Catelyn put aside the veil and held out her hand towards Lyanna, the little girl came over to her and took it. Catelyn pulled her up into her lap and she quickly made herself comfortable.

“Because Robb is getting married” she said and kissed the top of Lyanna’s head.

At least Lyanna was still small. She still sat in Catelyn’s lap and asked Catelyn to brush her hair. She asked Ned for stories before she was going to sleep, and followed her older siblings around because they were the most wonderful people in the world to her. The same went for Hoster. There were many years before they would get married and leave Winterfell. 

“I thought that was a good thing” Lyanna said.

“It is a good thing” Catelyn said.

Lyanna turned her head and looked at Catelyn with a puzzled expression on her little face.

“So why are you crying?”

“Because I’m happy.”

“You don’t cry when you’re happy” Lyanna said.

“Sometimes when grown women and men are happy they cry tears of happiness” Catelyn explained.

“I’ve never seen you cry. Have you never been happy before?”

“I have been happy many many times before, but we don’t always cry when we are happy.”

Catelyn could see how hard her daughter was thinking. Lyanna always scrunched up her face when she didn’t quite understand things, it was the cutest thing Catelyn knew. 

“Old people are odd” Lyanna said after a while.

“Yes, old people are odd” Catelyn agreed. “But one day you’ll be old too and then you’ll understand.”

Though it would be many years until that.

Catelyn put her hands to Lyanna’s sides and tickled her. Lyanna giggled and squirmed so much that she almost fell out of Catelyn’s lap. When she recovered she asked Catelyn to tell her a story. So she told Lyanna of Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters. Lyanna loved hearing that story, though she wasn’t very interested in Aegon. She mostly wanted to know everything about his sisters. Catelyn knew that she didn’t really have time for it, but soon a day would come when Lyanna didn’t crawl up into her lap and asked for a story. She had to treasure those moments because one day they would stop happening. So she told Lyanna everything she knew about Visenya and Rhaenys.

When Catelyn laid in bed that night, with her back pressed to Ned and his arms around her she thought of how much stronger their love had became over the years. And though Ned no longer blushed when he looked at her, there were something stronger between them. And they had built a beautiful family together on that, built a home. And they were so lucky. She was so lucky.

“What are you thinking about, my love?” Ned asked.

“How lucky I am to have you and our children” she said. 

She felt how he moved aside her braid and placed a featherlight kiss on her neck.

“I’m the lucky one. I have a beautiful, clever, kind, perfect wife. I don’t know what I did to deserve her. And together we have made eight wonderful children.”

They had made every child together.

“They are growing up. No one told me children get big so fast.”

“Lyanna and Hoster are only six, Rickon is eight, Bran is twelve, Arya is fourteen” Ned said. 

“Arya has bled” Catelyn reminded him. “According to the laws of gods and men she’s a woman now.”

“She might be a woman according to the laws of gods and men, but she is not yet an adult. She still has to run up to Maester Luwin every now and then because she has scrapes all over her body from playing. Either with her wolf or with her younger siblings. I know that the fact that Robb is going to take a wife soon makes it feel like they are all grown up, but most of them are not.”

“But soon they will be. Soon they will all marry and move away to distant corners of Westeros and it will be just you and me left here.”

“It will be quiet” he said.

“Very quiet.”

It wouldn’t be quiet, the castle would go on as usual. There would be loud noice coming from all over. But the sound of Jon and Robb bickering with each other as they sparred in the courtyard, the sound of Sansa’s singing, the sound of Arya’s laughter when she played with her direwolf, the sound of Bran reading stories about brave knights and great kings out loud to everyone who would listen, the sound of Rickon shouting in delight every time he managed to put an arrow close to the bull’s eye, the sound of Lyanna and Hoster talking way too loud for what was appropriate. All those sounds would be gone. And when they were gone it would in a strange way be deathly quiet in the castle. 

As Catelyn reflected on how she would absolutely hate the silence that would fill Winterfell when all of her children had left a question popped into her head. She turned in Ned’s arms so that she could look at him, their faces were so close that their noses almost touched.

“Ned, I want to try for another child” she whispered.

“Another child?” he asked surprised.

She blushed, maybe it had been a foolish suggestion. They had eight children already and they sure were a handful. If he felt like that was enough she would fully understand him. They had agreed on that they wouldn’t actively try to have another babe after Lyanna and Hoster, because eight children were quite a lot. But they had also said that if she became pregnant that wasn’t something bad, they would welcome all the children they might have. She was ready to start trying again though, just a last time before she got too old for it. But if he wasn’t, that was okay too. She was perfectly happy with her family the way it was, she loved all her children with all of her heart.

“Only if you want to, of course” she assured him. “We don’t have to.”

“You know what, Catelyn Stark? I would love to have another child with you.”

Then they needed to get started as soon as possible, didn’t they? 

“Do you want to make a child with me now?” 

“I really want to make a child with you right now.”

With a smile she kissed him.


	5. A wedding

When Catelyn opened her eyes the morning of the wedding she was met by the sight of Ned standing in front of the high windows. He had pulled back the heavy curtains to let in the first light of the sun, as he did every morning. Ned had always been a light sleeper, and always an early riser. No matter how late he went to bed, he always woke at the first light. Even though the curtains didn’t even let any sunlight into the bedchamber. Catelyn had never understood how he did it.

“Good morning, husband” she yawned.

The furs and blankets fell off her when she sat up and stretched and she made no attempt to pull them back over her. He turned to her and the corners of his mouth turned upwards when he saw her.

“Good morning, wife” he said.

She leaned back against the headboard. Drank deep of the sight of him. She had seen him in all sorts of lights. In daylight and moonlight and rainbow light. And so had many others. But Ned standing in the first sun rays of the day was different. She liked to think that that sight was for her eyes only.

He came over to the bed again and sat down next to her, leaned towards her and kissed her forehead. 

“Did you sleep well?” she smiled.

“I slept very well. I’ve been dreaming of you all night.”

Something in his eyes changed, they turned a shade darker. She moved closer to him on the bed and laid a hand on his thigh.

“What did I do in your dream?” she asked.

She had a guess, but she wanted to hear him say it. Wanted him to tell her what she had done in his dream. She always liked it when he voiced his desires.

He kissed her on the lips and she raised a hand to his cheek, then slowly moved it back to his neck.

“Oh, that wouldn't be appropriate to speak of” he said when he pulled back.

“Can you show me then?” she whispered, resting her forehead against his.

He kissed her once more. She laid her arms around his. neck and pressed herself closer to him, immediately feeling her body respond to the kiss. He was so warm, so familiar and real. She sighed softly into his mouth when his hand went between her legs and stroke her through her nightgown and smallclothes. The feeling shot straight through her and she instinctively moved her hips against his hand, desperate for more contact, more of that feeling. He broke the kiss and gently pushed her to lay on her back on the bed and placed himself between her legs.

Then the door to the chamber swung open with a bang. Catelyn and Ned barely had time to disentangle themselves from each other before Lyanna and Hoster had climbed up on the bed.

“Robb told us to wake you!” Lyanna said loudly. “He says you need to get up!”

Fortunately they hadn’t seemed to notice what had been about to happen in the bed.

“He is very grumpy, he almost shouted at us!” Hoster added.

Robb was like his father, an early riser. So the early morning was not the cause for his bad temper. Wedding nerves, Catelyn guessed. Or perhaps he had slept badly. She had not slept very well the night before her wedding. Maybe she had also been grumpy the morning of the ceremony, she didn’t remember. It had been so long since that and almost as long since it had stopped mattering.

“What have we said about coming in unannounced?” Catelyn asked.

It was, unfortunately, not the first time it happened. The children had a knack for not knocking, and that easily led to embarrassing and annoying situations.

“Robb said we didn’t need to knock!” Lyanna said. “He really did, I promise!”

“I’m sure he did” Ned said in a gruff voice.

Catelyn chuckled and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“We’ll have all the time in the world later” she whispered.

She needed it as much as he did, she could still feel how it had felt when he touched her. And they hadn’t done anything since they decided to try for another child. They had been too occupied during the days to have time for it and too tired in the nights to have energy for it. But soon it would be over and things would be a little less hectic.

“Well, we better get up then” Ned said and smiled. “We have a big day ahead of us.”

Robb would be a married man the next time she saw Ned in the first light. She wished that Margaery would get to see her husband in the first light of the next day. And many days after that.

~*~

“You look beautiful, my lady!”

“Thank you, Imeyna” Catelyn said.

She had got ready for the ceremony in a hurry so that she could then go and help Margaery together with her mother, Lady Alerie. But Imeyna and Mahild had done a splendid job with her, if she could say so herself. She would almost go as far as to say that she had not looked so good since her own wedding. She was much older, she had changed so much. Both physically and mentally. But when she looked at herself she knew that she wouldn’t change a thing if she was given the chance. The wrinkles in the corners of her eyes and mouth were from laughing with people she loved. Her belly was not as flat as it had been twenty years prior because she had carried eight children. Her breasts were not as firm as they had been because she had nursed her brilliant children. She was not young anymore, not as pretty as she had been. But she was happy and pleased with herself just the way she was. And she had never felt more beautiful.

She wore a rich purple gown with silver embroideries that spiraled around the bodice. Ned had given it to her for her nameday a few years prior, and she loved it so much, but she had never felt that any occasion was special enough to wear it. Until that day. Her long hair was half down, half braided into a bun in northern fashion. Not very elaborate, but still pretty. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a blue stone shaped in the form of a leaping trout. It was over all a quite simple look compared to the southern ladies of court in King’s Landing, but it was beautiful.

“Can I come in?”

She stood with her back to the door, but she would know that voice anywhere.

“Of course!” Catelyn said.

When she turned around and met his eyes he stopped dead in his tracks and just stared at her. She smiled at him.

“Isn’t the lady magnificent, my lord?” Mahild asked.

Catelyn suspected that she was quite satisfied with her work. She had all rights to be, but Ned didn’t answer, he looked like he hadn’t even heard Mahild. He just continued staring at her, with his mouth slightly opened. Catelyn had to hold back a laugh, he looked a bit strange. But she could also feel herself blushing, he had never stared at her like that. He often complimented her, told her of how beautiful and brilliant she was, but she couldn’t recall any time when she had truly left him speechless.

“Close your mouth, my love” she smiled.

He actually did close his mouth then, but he still said nothing.

“I think he’s gone” Catelyn said with a chuckle. “You did a too good job, girls.”

“I’ve never seen Lord Stark like this” Imeyna said, waving her hand in the air to catch Ned’s attention.

She failed.

“Me neither” Catelyn said and shrugged. “Well, thank you both. You have done a wonderful job. You may leave, but I need to get some sense into my lord.”

They curtsied and threw Ned another glance as they left the room. And that’s when Ned returned to the room.

“That’s the gown I gave you” he stated.

“That’s correct” Catelyn said. “Does it look good on me?”

She spun around a lap so that he could see all of it.

“Good?” he asked in a tone that suggested that she was stupid. “You are the most beautiful woman in the world! I can’t with words describe how magnificent you are, Cat.”

She felt like she was a young maiden again, blushing at every compliment she received from a man.

“Thank you” she almost whispered.

What had came over her? She looked down at the floor, tried to get herself together.

“You will put all the other women to shame” Ned continued.

“I assure you of that there’s no need to flatter me with lies” she said. 

There would be younger and far more beautiful women at the feast. Margaery, for example. Catelyn felt about as beautiful as an old boot next to her. But when she looked at Ned she saw no hints to that he was lying, he looked at her as if though she was truly the most beautiful woman in the world.

He came over to her and cupped her face with his hands, looked deeply into her eyes. She saw nothing but love in those eyes.

“And I assure you of that I’m not lying. I have never met a woman more magnificent than you. You are beautiful from the inside to the outside, and I don’t know what I did to deserve such a perfect wife.”

“Oh Ned” Catelyn sighed.

She didn’t know what else to say. He made her feel like she really was the most beautiful woman in the world, he made her feel brilliant and perfect.

He kissed her softly and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer. And before she knew it Ned had grabbed her hips and lifted her up on the desk. She kissed him eagerly, hungrily, as if though she had been starved of the taste of him. But when one of his hands started traveling up her back she had to break the kiss.

“You can’t touch my hair” she breathed. “It needs to be in place.”

Ned only growled at that and kissed her again. Instead of tangling his hands in her hair, he occupied them with pushing her skirts up. Then he worked her smallclothes down her legs and ran his hand up her inner thigh. But when she started to unlace his breeches he took her hand and placed it on the edge of the desk instead. She was confused by that, but he gave her no time to wonder. He kneeled before her, kissed the inside of her knee. He slowly moved his lips upwards, stopped to suck and lick and bite in places. His breath was hot against her skin, she felt like her whole body was on fire. When he finally was close to the hot spot between her legs she was wet and wanting, but he stopped. By then she was so desperate for his touch that she begged him for it.

“Please, Ned” she whimpered. “I need you to... ohh.”

He put his mouth to her clit and she grabbed the edge of the desk so hard that her knuckles turned white. The other hand grabbed Ned’s hair. She leaned back her head and closed her eyes, lost herself in the feeling of his tongue against her. It didn’t take him long to work her into a frenzy, and soon she cried out his name as she came undone. Her pleasure crashed against her like waves against a cliff, took her under and filled her up. For a few moments that was all that existed in her world. All she knew was her tingling skin and her racing heart, her burning body and the pulsing pleasure that shot through her. When she was back on earth again she opened her eyes and smiled at Ned.

“I needed that” she sighed happily.

Euphoria was the right word for describing what she felt in that moment.

“I know” he replied as he got up again.

He stepped close to her again and rested his chin on Catelyn’s shoulder. She drew small circles on his back with her fingers as her heartbeat slowed again. Then suddenly it occurred her that she had done nothing for him.

“Do you want me to..?” she asked gently.

“No” he said. “You’ve just been so stressed lately. I wanted to let you relax for a moment.”

“Thank you, my love.”

“I love you” he said.

“I love you too” she said and pressed a soft kiss to his neck. “But now I need to get back to it again. I promised to help Lady Margaery get ready.”

He let go of her and handed her her smallclothes. She quickly put them on again and then walked over to the looking glass. She smoothed out her skirts and studied herself closely to make sure that everything was in place.

Ned came over to her and embraced her from behind. She watched him through the looking glass, stroke his arms. She knew that he liked touch her, he often had a hand on her thigh during dinner or offered her his arm when walking even the shortest of distances. But he seemed to be especially touchy that day.

“Has anything happened?” she asked.

He scowled at that.

“I think some men have started drinking already” he muttered. “The way they talk, Cat, I hate it.”

It was the same thing as it always was when they hosted a large gathering in the castle. Every time someone had too much wine and said something about her that absolutely enraged Ned. She had expected it to go away as she got older, but the talk never seemed to get quiet. Though it was probably for the better, if someone started talking about their daughters Ned would most likely commit a murder. And Catelyn wouldn't try to stop him. She would rather have them talk of her, she almost found it amusing. It was like a joke that got more and more ridiculous every year.

“Ooh, what are they saying? No, wait, let me guess” she said with a smile. “Are they speculating about whether or not my southern blood and red hair makes me louder and more willing in bed again? No? Okay, are they talking of how much they would like to take me from behind and pull my hair? Or is it about how much they would like me to suck their cocks while they pull my hair? They always want to pull my hair, for some reason.”

Ned clearly didn’t find it entertaining.

“Please stop.”

“Are you sure? I have more guesses if none of those were correct” she said.

“Cat!”

She turned her head and looked at him.

“Men talk when they get drunk, Ned” she then said. “We can’t stop them from doing that. And we both know that they would never actually try anything, so let them talk. It does me no harm. And they will never get any answers to their questions, they will never know what my hair feels like. Because I’m yours, I love you, and I don’t want any other man in my bed.”

“I know” he groaned.

He still frowned. She raised a hand to his forehead and smoothed out the wrinkles.

“Put a smile on your face, Eddard Stark, our firstborn will be wed soon.”

~*~

Catelyn had cried a lot the previous weeks, and she felt the tears coming once more when she put the veil in place in Margaery’s hair. It was just perfect on her. She was so beautiful. And Lady Alerie seemed to think the same, Catelyn noticed that she was also holding back tears. They smiled at each other and then looked back at their daughter. Margaery was Catelyn’s daughter too, she really was. She had only been at Winterfell for a few weeks, but she had fit right in. All of Catelyn’s children had taken her in immediately, and Margaery had been so kind to them.

“It’s so beautiful!” Margaery said when she looked at herself in the looking glass. “You have done such a good job with the veil, Lady Stark. I can’t even imagine how much time you must have put into this.”

Catelyn took a deep breath to calm herself.

“You are most kind” she said with the steadiest voice that she could muster.

The white dress Margaery wore was quite simple, sewn in northern fashion, but it fit her perfectly. The bodice was decorated with pearls and embroidered with silver weirwood leaves. Over that she wore the maiden’s cloak, green with golden roses on it.

“Are you two crying again?” Margaery asked and looked at them through the looking glass.

“Perhaps” Alerie sniffled.

Margaery walked over and embraced her mother.

“Isn’t it me who should be crying?” she joked. “I’m the one to be wed.”

“We know” Alerie said.

“But it’s big when your little child is all grown up and about to wed and start their own family” Catelyn said.

Lady Alerie had already been through it twice. Her two eldest sons were married. Robb was Catelyn’s first. But maybe it was different with a daughter. Or maybe it was the fact that Margaery would have to stay in the north when the rest of her family travelled back to the Reach and Highgarden. Catelyn knew that one day she would have to leave a child and travel back to Winterfell after a wedding. But that was another day, the current day was for Robb and Margaery.

“Well, I’m ready” Margaery said when she parted from her mother.

“That’s good” Catelyn said. “I wasn’t ready. Not that things turned out bad for me, but it’s always good to be ready.”

Well, she had been ready, but for a different man. She had loved Brandon, she had been ready for Brandon and then Ned had been the man she said her vows to. She loved Ned with all her heart, she was so happy for that he was her husband. But she still wished that she could have got a month to get to know him before she had said her vows. He was her husband before she knew what it felt like to hold his hand. She wished that she could have felt ready. Every woman, no matter who she was, deserved to feel ready.

“You didn’t feel ready?” Lady Alerie asked.

“No. I was never given a chance to be ready, I was married away quick and smooth because of the rebellion. But that was a different time, a time of war and destruction. Now are times of peace. And Margaery deserves to feel ready.”

“I feel ready” Margaery said. “So let the wedding begin.”

~*~

It had always felt like it was so far away, like it would never actually happen. When the betrothal had been made she had thought that it was an eternity until the wedding would actually happen. But there she stood, in the godswood of Winterfell, waiting for her son’s bride to arrive. Her father would lead her to heart tree, where Robb was waiting. The poor boy was so incredibly nervous. He had recited the words of the ceremonial conversation under his breath all week when he thought no one was listening. It had brought a smile to Catelyn’s face when she heard it for the first time, he was such a precious boy. She knew that maybe she should have stopped referring to him as a boy on the day of his wedding, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. He would always be her child, always be her boy. She wouldn’t call him a boy out loud, but no one could read her mind. So in his mind she could call him a boy.

The sun had gone down and lanterns lit up the glade with the weirwood and the path to it. And even though the lanterns provided light they didn’t give off any heat. Catelyn wore a fur trimmed cloak over her dress and had gloves on, but she still shivered. She hated the cold, hated it. She liked the north, she loved her northern family, but the cold would be the death of her. At least it wasn’t snowing. Snow meant a cold marriage, that was common knowledge. And that was the last thing she wanted for Robb and Margaery.

She pulled up the hood of her cloak and tried to rub some heat into her hands. It didn’t help much, if she was going to be honest. Her fingers were going numb. There was a reason to why she avoided being outside for more than a couple of minutes after the darkness had fallen. She looked around at the people around her, they didn’t seem as bothered by the cold as she was. Not even Lyanna and Hoster seemed too cold. They were actually behaving very well even though they were usually impatient, she prayed a quick prayer for that they would be still and quiet all the way through the ceremony. Hoped that her gods would hear her, since they seemed so far away whenever she set her foot in the godswood of Winterfell. And they were never so far away as when she stood before the red eyes of the weirwood.

Ned glanced at her and noticed that he was shivering.

“That won’t help you unless you take your gloves off, my lady” he said. “Let me help you.”

His breath turned into a puff of smoke in the air when he spoke.

“I’ve lived up here for so many years and I still haven’t learned anything” she mumbled and peeled of her gloves.

Ned also took of his gloves and took her hands between his own. He was so warm that he barely had to rub her hands to get warmth into them. She was so happy for that he had taken it upon himself to keep her warm.

“Thank you, my love” she said when she put her gloves on again.

What would she have done without him?

That was when the smalltalk got quiet and Margaery stepped into the glade, escorted by her father. Mace Tyrell seemed to feel discomfort and perhaps even a bit of fear at the sight of the heart tree. His wife and sons had had the same look on their faces when they saw the red eyes. Catelyn had felt the same thing the first time Ned showed her the godswood, she understood them. But Margaery walked tall and proud, she showed no sign of fear. She was brave, braver than Catelyn had been that first time.

Robb took a deep breath. And then he spoke.

“Who comes?” he asked. “Who comes before the gods?”

“Margaery of House Tyrell comes here to be wed. A woman grown and flowered, trueborn and noble, she comes to to beg the blessings of the gods” Lord Mace said.

He seemed a bit unsure of his words. He was unfamiliar with the old gods and the northern ways, but that was what he had agreed to when he married his daughter to a Stark.

“Who comes to claim her?” Lord Mace then said.

“Me” Robb said. “Robb of House Stark, heir to Winterfell and the North. I claim her. Who gives her?”

“Mace of House Tyrell, who is her father.”

Lord Mace then looked at his daughter. He was quiet for a moment. Would Ned also be quiet when he gave Sansa away the day she wed? Would Catelyn watch in silence and feel that she wanted to keep her daughter close and safe forever?

“Lady Margaery, will you take this man?”

“I take this man” Margaery said, her voice steady.

She let go of her father’s arm and walked to Robb, who took her hand. Then they knelt before the weirwood together, and bowed their heads. For prayer. That was the first time Margaery prayed before a heart tree. Catelyn had only done it a few times, it felt so strange praying a prayer to nameless and faceless gods that she did not know. But she did pray then. She also bowed her head down and prayed a prayer for that her son and Margaery would have a good and happy marriage.

After they had said their silent prayers they rose again. And Robb took of her maiden’s cloak and replaced it with a white one with a direwolf sewn on it. Robb scooped his wife into his arms with a big smile and carried her away from the heart tree. Margaery Tyrell had walked into the glade, but Margaery Stark would be carried out of it.

“Our son has a wife” Ned said quietly as he offered her his arm.

“That’s correct” Catelyn said and took it. “Our son does have a wife.”

“Madness” Ned muttered under his breath as they began to walk after Robb and Margaery, towards the feast that awaited them in the Great Hall.

She laughed.

“And from now on it only gets madder” she smiled.

“We better get used to it.”

“I’ll never get used to it.” “Me neither.”

~*~

Catelyn glanced up at Robb and Margaery. They ate from each other’s plates, drank from the same cup. And they could barely take their eyes off each other. If they were lucky that happiness would last, grow even stronger during their future years together.

Catelyn laid a hand on Ned’s arm and when he looked at her she nodded towards their son and his wife.

“We made a good match” she said. “They seem happy.”

Ned only laughed.

“Has he blinked since he sat down at the table?” he asked

“No.”

And just as she said that Robb rose from the table and shouted for silence. The hall actually got quiet despite the size of the Great Hall and the amount of loud people in it. Everyone turned their attention to Robb.

“First of all, I want to thank all of you for attending my wedding” he said. “Second of all, I want to thank my parents, Lord Eddard and Lady Catelyn, for loving me, and my siblings.” He paused for a moment and pulled a face. “And each other. My father taught me that solars are for work, but he does not live as he preaches.”

The hall erupted into laughter. And Catelyn had to laugh along with them when she saw the look on Ned’s face.

“I’ll never hear the end of this” he sighed, but he smiled.

She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“No, you won’t” she chuckled. “But you have to admit, it was amusing.”

The little incident Robb referred to had been entirely Catelyn’s fault, she had not closed the door to the solar properly. But she could let everyone believe that it was Ned’s fault. The proper Lord Stark calling for his lady in the middle of the day so that he could fuck her on his desk, it was more amusing than the truth.

Robb began to speak again when it got quiet.

“It has left me very confused, I don’t know what to believe. But I know that my clever Margaery can help me through this confusion, and give me advise when the time comes for me to occupy this seat permanently. And I know that she will be a brilliant Lady Stark, though I dare not say the best with my mother and father so close.” More laughter. “So I would like to make a toast to my lovely wife.” He raised his cup. “To Margaery Stark!”

Everyone raised their cups.

“TO MARGAERY STARK!”

Margaery smiled and leaned over to kiss Robb when he sat down again. He seemed to have been taken my surprise but he raised a hand to her cheek and kissed her back. Young love truly was beautiful.

The rest of the courses were served without much trouble. There were more toasts from many people, toasts to Margaery, and to Robb, toasts to most everything when the men started to get drunker. The music played loud and the wine and ale flowed. They talked and laughed. When people finished eating a part of the hall was cleared out for dancing and Robb and Margaery danced the first dance. It was a wonder they could hear the music over the deafening cheers and applauds from the crowd that watched them. But they got through it with elegance, both were graceful dancers.

“Could I have this dance?” Ned asked when the first song was finished and the next one started.

Catelyn was surprised, Ned had never liked to dance. It was almost always she who asked him to dance. She had always found it charming that he tried for her because he knew she loved to dance. Even though he was a clumsy dancer.

But despite her surprise she smiled and happily accepted his hand.

“Of course, I would love to dance with you.”

And she was taken by surprise once more when she noticed that the clumsy dancer her husband had always been was gone. His usual quite awkward attempts to spin her around worked and her never stepped on her feet. He moved her around the floor with a smoothness she had never experienced with him before.

“When did you learn to dance?” she asked.

“I asked Sansa to teach me a while back” he told her.

She was a bit intrigued by that. Why had he not told her of it? Why had she not heard anything from Sansa? How had she not heard anything of it from anyone? Secrets travelled fast within the walls of a castle, someone other than Ned and Sansa had to know about it.

“Why? I thought you didn’t care for dancing.”

“I wanted to dance with you at our son’s wedding. Because I know how much you love to dance. And I love seeing the way your face lights up when you do something you love.”

He lifted her up into the air and she couldn’t hold back a laugh.

“You learned to dance... for me?” she asked when she was down on her feet again.

“Yes. Because I love you.”

He had learned to dance for her. It felt like he had just given her the most beautiful gift in the world. He was fantastic. 

Catelyn suddenly realized that they had stopped dancing and was just standing there and looking at each other.

“Oh Ned” she sighed.

She reached up and kissed him, he tasted of wine and love. She smiled against his lips when she felt how he put his hands on her hips and pulled her closer.

“I love you too” she said when they pulled apart.

When they walked back to their table after the song ended they were met by Sansa, Arya, Bran and Jon. And Rickon stood behind them.

“Our father taught us that feasts are for eating and drinking and dancing, but he does not live as he preaches” Sansa began.

“It has left us very confused” Arya continued.

“We don’t know what to believe” Bran added.

“But we know that some clever person can help us through this” Jon finished.

Catelyn laughed. It seemed like their kiss had not gone unnoticed.

“I don’t understand” was what Rickon said.

“You will when you get older and then you’ll want to cut your brain out” Arya said and ruffled his hair.

“Why would I want to cut my brain out?” Rickon asked confused.

But he didn’t have any time to wonder about it because Lyanna and Hoster came running towards him and Hoster gave him a shove in the back as he passed.

“Hey!” Rickon shouted and set off after them.

Normally Catelyn would have shouted after them that it was not proper to run where people were eating, but no one cared about them, more than that a few smiled as the children ran past them. It was a day of joy after all, they could play.

Instead she turned to Ned.

“You need to stop with all this, Lord Stark” she said playfully. “You are confusing your poor children. And it’s very inappropriate to attack a lady with a kiss like that.”

“Oh I beg for your forgiveness, Lady Stark” Ned replied and rolled his eyes. “Though I would like to say that it was you who attacked me with a kiss.”

“Are you accusing me of showing affection towards my beloved husband in front of people?” she asked with false shock in her voice. “How dare you?”

“I grow bolder every time you look at you. You truly look lovely” he said.

“And you two are truly disgusting even though I am glad to have been born” Jon said and pulled a face. “Now Mother, may I have this dance?”

“You may have this dance” she chuckled.

She was led out to dance once more, that time by her son instead of her husband. Though Jon looked exactly like a younger version of Ned.

“He’s right though, you do look lovely” Jon said.

“Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself.”

Jon did look very handsome. He had also dressed in his nicest clothes, and he had brushed back his hair so that more of his face was visible.

“I like what you did with your hair” she said.

He blushed a little then.

“Alys said the same” he mumbled.

“She’s a clever girl, Alys Karstark” Catelyn smiled.

“I know.”

~*~

“Poor girl.”

The men had their hands all over Margaery. Catelyn couldn’t hear what they were saying over the loud playing of “The Queen took off her sandal, the King took off his crown”, but she was sure of that she could guess what they were saying if she tried.

The women pushed Robb forward and tore at his clothes. Though he seemed to be fine.

“I was scared half to death” Leona Manderly said.

“Me too” Catelyn said. “Those frozen northerners were not so frozen when given the chance to undress me.”

Ned had been the most frozen one of them all. He had barely looked at her during the feast. And he had barely looked at her when he bedded her. But as she had told Margaery and her mother, that had been a different time. The death of his family and the war had weighed heavily on Ned’s mind. Not to mention that they had been complete strangers to each other and she had been betrothed to his brother. There had been a lot of things between them then. But during the years they had moved those things aside, one object at a time.

“The only frozen northerners are you Starks.”

“I had barely met any northerners before my wedding, how was I supposed to know that? I was raised on stories about frozen northern men that turned into wolves at night.”

“Southerners believe so many strange things” Maege Mormont chuckled. “It’s easy to forget that you have been one of them, Lady Stark.”

“We have no way of knowing if Stark men turn into wolves at night or not, Maege” Jonelle Cerwyn said and took a sip from her cup. “Perhaps the southerners are right. Perhaps Lady Catelyn has a wolf for a husband during the nights.”

“A wolf is nothing” Maege snorted. “A bear, there you have a real challenge.”

Catelyn looked over at Ned who was deep into conversation with Howland Reed a table away and smiled. Some nights her husband was more wolf than man. And sometimes it came out during the day too. She had bite marks on her inner thighs to prove it. Her years in the north had probably given her a bit of wolf’s blood too, because she enjoyed it more than anything when he let go of the control. 

“A bear would be a real challenge” she agreed. “I only have a gentle wolf.”

“But not a very patient one, if your son is to be believed” Lady Leona said.

Catelyn laughed. Ned was the most patient man she had ever met, he waited patiently for most everything. The meetings in his solar mostly happened when his workload got larger than usual for a long period and he barely had time to eat and sleep, much less see to her sexual needs. He came to bed long after she had fallen asleep and rose before she woke in the mornings, she barely saw him at all during those periods. That was when she could take to stealing a few minutes from him in the middle of the day so that she could see him at all.

“Oh Ned doesn’t lack for patience. It’s just that he gets a bit lost in work every now and then, and when it happens he barely leaves the solar and my only way to see him at all is if I pay him a visit.” 

“So he simply has an impatient lady wife?” Lady Jonelle said.

“He simply has a southern lady wife that never gets used to the cold” Catelyn responded and raised her own cup to her lips. “And sometimes mulled wine and furs doesn’t help her.”

Nothing helped her fight of a persistent chill like Ned’s body working with her own.

“I see. It gets terribly cold up here sometimes” Lady Jonelle said. “And it must be even worse when you were born south of the Neck.” “There is no summer snow down there. And the rivers flow in the winters as well as in the summers” Lady Leona smiled. “You must have hated it here in the start.”

“Had someone offered me a chance to take my boys and run back to Riverrun during the first months I would have taken it without hesitation” Catelyn laughed.

She jumped so high that she almost fell off the bench when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. But it only took her a second to figure out who it was.

“You could have warned me” she mumbled to the women around her.

Then she turned to Ned.

“Did I frighten you?” he asked.

“You startled me, that’s all” she said. “Did you want to say something?”

”I wanted to say something but then I was distracted by the fact that you said that you wanted to take my eldest sons and run back to Riverrun.”

“I’ll take them all, sons and daughters, when I run back to Riverrun” she teased him.

“You’re a vicious woman.”

“Did my father never warn you about my cruelness before he forced you into the sept?”

“No. I was assured of that you were the sweetest woman to have ever lived in Westeros” he said and pursed his lips.

“I’m sorry to have disappointed you” she said and flashed him her best smile. “Now, what was it that you wanted to say?”

“I need to follow Howland to the Great Keep. I have some papers that I have to give to him.”

“Okay. Will you come back down afterwards?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Thank you for letting me know.”

“No problem.”

She turned back to the ladies and smiled.

“I apologize for that, where were we?”

~*~

Catelyn leaned closer to Ned so that she would get his attention.

“Ned. I want a babe, give me a babe.” She could feel the wine. Feel how it made her thoughts slow and how she was not in as much control of her lips as she usually was. And maybe deep down some part of her felt regret and screamed of how much she would hate herself the next day when she would have to deal with the headache. But your eldest son only got married once and the feast had been going on for quite a while at that point, dawn was breaking outside the Great Hall. It was okay to be drunk. And she wasn’t even close to being the drunkest. If anything, she was probably one of the most sober people in the hall. And that really said something. Probably that she wasn’t much of a drinker, but also that northern feasts were better than southern. At least when it came to the amount of wine and ale.

“A minute, my lady” Ned said without turning to her.

He was talking to some Umber men about something boring. She had given up on listening a while back, if she was being honest. But maybe it would be good to listen. Or at least pretend that she was listening.

She leaned against Ned without even thinking of it. Rested her head against his shoulder and took his hand, weaved their fingers together. She looked up at Greatjon as he spoke. Sansa was betrothed to his son, Smalljon Umber. It would be good to not appear impolite. But Greatjon was very drunk and listening to his slurring was hard, she didn’t feel like what he said made any sense. Catelyn caught her mind wandering to more interesting places. She leaned away from Ned, reached for a cup on the table with her free hand and raised it to her lips. She couldn’t even tell what kind of wine it was anymore.

“That’s my cup” Ned said.

She took another mouthful of wine before she replied.

“I know.”

“Why don’t you drink from your cup?”

“It’s empty.”

“Then call for more. No one will deny you.”

“We can share” she said. “We are married, we share far more intimate things than cups.”

“What was it that you wanted to say?” Ned asked.

She had forgotten what she wanted to say.

“I’m drunk” she said.

“I’m aware of that, Cat” he said with an amused expression.

“I don’t remember when I was last drunk.”

“Well, I remember” Ned told her.

He was even less of a drinker than Catelyn was. He probably took the place as the most sober person in the hall, but he still wasn’t sober. Maybe Margaery would have taken the spot if she had not left the hall many hours earlier.

“I seem to recall that it was your thirtieth name day. There were a lot of toasts to you at that feast, a lot of wine.”

A lot of toast to her? Huh. She didn’t know if she didn’t remember it because she had been drunk then or because she was drunk at the moment.

“Oh” she said softly. “I only remember the end of that day. It was a good ending.”

Ned had also had enough to drink that night for their lovemaking to be a bit rougher than usual. So a bit of wine had added a certain spice.

She let go of his hand, rested her hand on his thigh instead.

“It was” Ned agreed. “But you were not in the best shape the day after, so you should put down the cup.”

She looked at him for a moment, then she smiled and drank a bit more. What was he going to do? Punish her? Seemed unlikely. Though she wouldn’t object to some good punishment. She did love it when he pulled her hair.

“Cat” he said slowly.

She moved her hand higher up his thigh and leaned close to him again, nuzzled her face against his neck.

“Yes, my lord?” she whispered and kissed his skin.

Catelyn couldn’t help her smirk when she felt Ned’s pulse quicken, his neck had always been a sensitive spot. And so she slid her hand a little higher up. It was next to his cock then. She would just have to move it a little in order to touch him.

Was she acting like a whore in full view of everyone that wanted to see? Yes. Did she care? Not even a little.

“I want a babe, Ned” she mumbled and pressed her lips against his neck once more.

“I’ll give you all the babes you want, my love. But I think what you need is sleep.”

She wasn’t tired. Just wanton.

“I don’t need sleep, I just want to feel you around me... inside me.”

“You are drunk” Ned said and pushed her away.

“I’m going to bed. Come with me or not, your choice, my lord. But know that if you stay here I will have to take matters into my own hands.”

She put down the cup on the table again and stood up. She swayed a little, the wine made her unsteady and for a moment her head was swimming. But Ned took her arm and led her by the rows of benches and tables, out of the Great Hall. She stopped for a moment outside the doors and just breathed deeply. The morning air wrapped itself around her, and it felt like she had stepped into cold water. Like she had stepped into one of the rivers in the lands of her childhood. A very sobering feeling.

“Are you okay?” Ned asked worriedly.

“I’ve never felt better.”

She looked at him and smiled. He was so beautiful in the morning sun. She loved the sight of him in the morning sun. So she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.


	6. A daughter and a son

Catelyn had just sat down and put Lyarra to the breast when it knocked on the door. She sighed. The day had been busy, but couldn’t she even nurse her babe in peace? It was ridiculous. 

“Who is it?” she called.

“It’s Maester Luwin, my lady.”

That man had pulled Lyarra from her body and placed her in her arms just a little more than five months earlier, he could speak to her as she nursed. There was no reason for him to wait. And even though Catelyn desperately wanted a few quiet minutes with her daughter, she forced herself to open her mouth. If she was lucky the maester would only need a quick word and then leave.

“Enter!”

The grey little man opened the door and came inside. He barely seemed to notice the nursing babe in Catelyn’s arms.

“I do not mean to disturb, my lady, but your lord husband told me to bring this to you” he said and pulled out a letter of one of his sleeves.

“You can put it on the table” Catelyn said and nodded towards the table next to her. 

He put the letter down.

“She’s a hungry child” he noted with a little smile.

“Not worse than Arya” she responded and looked down at Lyarra.

She had a small scar on her left breast from where Arya had bitten her once when she nursed. She had always been wild child, Lyarra was almost at her level, but Arya still beat her.

“No, not worse than Arya” Maester Luwin chuckled. “But she’s growing as she should, so it’s good that she’s eating.”

Lyarra was growing at a frightening speed in Catelyn’s opinion, it was as if though she grew an inch every time her poor mother looked away. Soon she would also be walking and talking, just like the rest of her siblings. It happened too fast, children grew too fast.

“It’s very good.”

“Now I must return to Lord Stark. Good day, my lady.”

“Good day, maester.”

The maester bowed and left the room again, closing the door behind him.

She glanced at the letter while she waited for Lyarra to be done. She smiled when she saw that it was from Robb, she had not heard much from him since he left Winterfell. He and Margaery had moved to a small keep a day’s ride from Winterfell a couple of months after their wedding. And after that it had not taken many months before they could happily announce that Margaery was carrying a child. Though Catelyn had been first, just a few weeks after Robb’s wedding she had discovered that she was with child. She had cried with happiness in Ned’s arms. And nine months later Lyarra had came to them. The girl was a happy babe, but she liked to make noice, and you could often hear her scream and babble. She looked just like Ned, but he insisted on that she had Catelyn’s nose and mouth. Catelyn really couldn’t see it, but Ned wouldn’t waver from that opinion. She supposed it would become more apparent when Lyarra grew older. But she never wanted the girl to grow older, she wanted to be able to carry the little girl in her arms forever. 

When Lyarra was satisfied Catelyn laced up her gown again and put down the babe in her cradle. Then she picked up the letter. She noticed that it was addressed to Ned, but he had sent Maester Luwin to her with it, she guessed he didn’t have time for it. He was holding audience that day, she guessed he didn’t really have time to open letters in between dealing with the matters of his people. So she opened the letter and let out a squeal in delight when she read Robb’s words.

“Robb has a child” she said to herself. 

And Catelyn had a grandchild. Another Stark of Winterfell had been born that night, a little boy. Robb wrote that his wife and son were both healthy, though the birth had taken hard on woman and child both. He had also written a long paragraph about how beautiful and good his son was, he had Margaery’s face, and a little tuft of brown hair on his tiny head. But he had blue eyes, Robb’s eyes. And Catelyn’s. The child had her Tully blue eyes.

All she could do was to sit there and stare in wonder at the paper in her hand. It was hard to believe that her son had a son. She had a grandson. And the boy had her eyes. 

When she had managed to pull the overjoyed shards that was herself together she stood up from her chair. She called for a maid to watch over Lyarra when she left and began her walk towards the audience chamber with the letter in hand. She had to tell Ned the happy news, she had to tell him about their grandson. 

The chamber was a bit crowded when she entered, but she managed to get inside. She knew very well that it was neither appropriate nor responsible to interrupt her lord when he helped his folk with their struggles and tried to answer their questions. But she had decided that waiting was for days when there had not been born a little Stark. So when the farmer that was speaking when she entered was finished she strode forward before anyone else had time to.

Ned looked at her with questioning eyes.

“Is it urgent, my lady?” he asked with his brow furrowed.

She smiled a beaming smile at him and when he looked even more worried she laughed.

“Wipe that frown off your face, Lord Stark” she said, and was quiet a second before she announced it. “Our first grandson has been born.”

The room was quiet, and then suddenly it erupted into cheers and laughter. A Stark had been born, and not just any Stark, but Robb Stark’s heir. The little boy was a future Lord of Winterfell. And the North was celebrating his birth .

“A grandson?” Ned asked as if she had just told him that Lyarra had grown wings and flew out through a window.

“Robb’s wife has given birth to a big and healthy boy” she told him and walked towards him.

He stood and met her.

“And what did they name him?”

“They gave him a strong name, a name that will earn him respect from the northerners. It’s a name that he will be proud to bear, though he has some big shoes to fill when his time comes” she told him.

Ned looked at her impatiently, as if he just wished that she would get to the point and tell him what the name of his grandson was.

She took one of his hands with her own and stroke the back of it with her thumb.

“They named him Eddard” she said.

She doubted he had ever smiled like he did in that moment. Not even when his own sons and daughters had entered the world he had smiled like he smiled when he found out that he had a grandchild named after him.

She handed him the letter so that he could read it himself and she watched him go through every positive feeling there was in the matter of a minute. And when he had finished reading the letter dropped to the ground and suddenly he had lifted her into the air. She was a bit taken by surprise but laughed with him when he spun them around.

“We did this” he said when she had her feet on the ground again. “We built this family.”

“We did” she smiled and laid a hand on his cheek. “And now it’s growing on it’s own.”

They were congratulated half a hundred times after that. And it didn’t take long before all of Winterfell knew about it, news really did travel fast in a castle. All the children came running after just a few minutes, excitedly asking if it was true that Robb’s babe had been born. When Catelyn told them that it was true Sansa squealed in delight just as Catelyn had done.

“When will they come here?” she asked with a big smile. “When can we meet him?”

“They will probably wait a while before they take him outside for a longer period of time, you have to be careful with a newborn babe, they’re sensitive to most everything” Catelyn told her calmly. “And it’s not very fun riding with a babe, speaking from experience.”

In truth, she was just pretending to be calm and collected. She was also desperate to meet little Ned, she wanted to hold her first grandson in her arm. It was such a special feeling, knowing that she had a grandchild. Her first grandchild. She was a grandmother.

Then all the children started speaking over each other. One of them loudly spoke of how they would write to Robb and Margaery, another wanted to know what little Ned looked like, and a third demanded to know when he would be old enough to play with. That was all Catelyn could make out, the rest was just as incomprehensible as Lyarra’s babbling.

The babe was their only conversation topic for the rest of that day. It seemed that they could never run out of things to say about their nephew. Catelyn wondered how much they would talk when they could actually see him, they would probably scare the boy half to death. But she felt proud when she sat at the table at supper with Lyarra sitting in her lap and listened to how they went on and on, barely touching their food. Just like Ned had said, they had built that family. And suddenly it had began to grow on it’s own, without their help. It would continue to grow and flourish after she and Ned were gone. That was a very calming thought. Family, duty, honor. The family would continue to live and grow, and their values would pass down to each new generation to come.

Ned leaned towards her and kissed her temple.

“Look at them” she said in a low voice. “They already love him.”

Catelyn loved him too. She loved her grandson with all of her heart. It didn’t matter that she had not met him. She had read Robb’s words about his little son and her heart had filled with so much love that she couldn’t find words to describe the feeling.

“He’ll fit right in” Ned said.

Just as she was about to respond Lyarra managed to catch a strand of Catelyn’s hair and pulled on it with all the strength of her tiny fists. Catelyn yelped in pain and tried to free herself, the only thing that happened was that Lyarra started chewing on the hair in her hands.

“Ouch! You little rascal, let go of my hair!”

She wanted to sound stern, but it was ruined by the fact that Lyarra giggled so adorably that Catelyn melted.

“You want me to take her?” Ned asked.

“Please” Catelyn said. “But first I have to get her to let go. Gods, she’s strong for being so small.”

She took a spoon she had not used from the table.

“Oh look at this shiny spoon” she said in her softest voice and dangled it in front of Lyarra. “Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun to play with this instead of Mommy’s hair?”

Lyanna’s eyes turned big as plates when she saw the spoon and she immediately grabbed it. Catelyn sighed in relief when the little girl let go of her hair and Ned took her, placing her in his lap instead. Well, the hair was more of a wet and tangled tuft, actually. Catelyn frowned when she looked at it, it was a very sad thing to look upon.

“Why the frown?” Ned asked with a grin.

“That child will give me grey hair” Catelyn responded as she tried to comb out the hair with her fingers.

“That’s nice, then I won’t be alone in it.”

She glanced at him. Half of his hair and beard was grey though he had not yet turned forty. But she loved that, it brought character to his hair in her opinion.

“You look very handsome in grey“ she said.

“And you’ll be beautiful in grey, the day it comes to you too.”

“Thank you, my love” she said and smiled.

“Shut it, please” Arya called.

“Language, young lady!” Catelyn said.

“Oh you’ve got something in your hair” Arya said and smiled a venomous smile as she touched her own hair. “Just there.”

She was referring to the hair that had taken a trip into Lyarra’s mouth.

“Shut it” Catelyn muttered and tossed the wet tuft over her shoulder.

All her children turned to her at the same time.

“Language!” they said in choir.

“You were right” Catelyn said and turned to Ned. “Little Ned will fit right in with these strange children of ours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was it, guys! All parts of A new marriage and an old one are officially out. Hope you liked it! If you did, maybe you’ll want to check out other fics I’ve written. They’re all here on ao3, but also on Tumblr where I’m loverofnedandcat. And more fics will come in the future so don’t miss them! 
> 
> Thank you for reading A new marriage and an old one <3


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